Go With the F.L.O.

Welcome to my page devoted to Frederick Law Olmsted aka F.L.O. In the course of researching an Olmsted biography, forthcoming from Da Capo Press, I’m visiting a number of F.L.O.’s sites around the country. And I’ll be using this space to provide regular posts.

Olmsted had a mammoth career as a writer, abolitionist, Civil War hero, and pioneering environmentalist. He’s best known for more than 50 landscape architecture projects, everything from parks to university campuses to the grounds of several mental institutions. Following his wildly peripatetic footsteps is quite a task, but I’m making an effort to trace the trail of this American visionary. Hope you’ll enjoy these dispatches.

The grounds surrounding the U.S. capitol remain remarkably true to Olmsted’s original plan. Amazing! You’d think some Senator would have snuck through a bill appropriating money for a really lavish monument on the grounds — or that Congress would have paved the whole area over to create really primo parking.

Day 75 of the BP oil disaster. I’m visiting Boston’s park system, where Olmsted’s innovative Back Bay Fens — in particular — is a reminder that there are environmental solutions as well as environmental problems.

Knew my visit to Cali wouldn’t be complete unless I made a pilgrimage to Bear Valley, a town where Olmsted lived when he was a goldmine supervisor. But people tended to assume I was simply lost. I must mean Bear Valley, the popular ski resort.